After television, MCX goes the BTL way for greater people connect

Close on the heels of launching its TV campaign, MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd) has embarked on a below the line (BTL) campaign. The campaigns precede the proposed IPO of the company. The campaign, which encompasses the outdoor medium, including cinema, in-flight entertainment and LCD displays, aims to simplify the concept of commodity exchange and make people connect with the company at an emotional and rational level.

Lowe is the creative agency, while Mediacom is the media agency working on the campaign.

MCX has planned a two-phased campaign, which had the ATL campaign breaking in early February 2008, followed by the BTL activities from the third week of February. Explaining the rationale behind this two-phased campaign, Setu Shah, AVP-Marketing Communications, MCX, said, “The first phase of advertising was to generate curiosity in the minds of the audience, while the second phase will focus on specific commodities traded through the exchange.”

For the BTL activities, MCX has used in-flight displays, OOH LCD screens in buildings, and even radio spots. Elaborating further, Shah said, “The campaign has put to use innovations at key touch points to the target group. The core message has interestingly been weaved into each innovation and is based on the insight of ‘While you were away, commodity prices might have fluctuated and affected your business’.”

Meanwhile, MCX has used various means to reach out to farmers and communicate about prices to them. This includes using blackboards outside post offices across India (via a tie-up with India Post) to prices on SMS (via a tie-up with BSNL) and an IVRS menu (via a tie-up with Tata Telecom).

There is a separate campaign created by Lowe for rural India. The rural communication is targeted at the farmer who never really gets the price he deserves for his produce. But with MCX commodity exchange he can get the information on future price of crops so that he can quote the right price for his produce. The audio-visual communication ends with an evocative tagline ‘Kal se mulaqat aaj kijiye’.